1998-05-29 04:00:00 PDT CALIFORNIA -- Republican U.S. Senate candidate Darrell Issa says that during the Vietnam War he served with an elite Army bomb unit, traveling with then-President Richard Nixon to protect him from harm.

He attended baseball's World Series in 1971 as part of the president's security entourage, Issa once told an interviewer.

But military records obtained by The Examiner and interviews with former soldiers cast doubt on the stories the millionaire executive-turned-politician tells about his Army days.

The records show that Issa's service on what he terms an

"Army security team" amounted to less than six months on a bomb-disposal squad in 1971. That's scant experience to qualify him for presidential security duty, former GI bomb experts say.

Issa couldn't have guarded Nixon at the World Series because the president didn't attend, according to the Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda.

According to records and interviews, Issa's service on the bomb squad was marred by a bad conduct rating, a demotion and allegations that he had stolen a fellow soldier's car.

And although Issa's campaign biography says he served nine years in the Army before leaving to make his fortune in the electronics business, the records show he served for five years and three months: as an enlisted man during 1970-1972, and as a lieutenant from 1976 to 1980.

Between 1972 and 1976, he was a college student in an Army ROTC program, records show.

Issa declined to be interviewed for this story. A spokesman said Issa accurately has described his military past and had compiled a distinguished service record. But one former GI says he has a different memory of Issa.

"That kid stole my car out of the parking lot and took it to Cleveland, and I knew he did it," said retired 1st Sgt. Jay Bergey, who served with Issa in 1971 on the 145th Ordnance Detail, an Army bomb squad stationed near Pittsburgh.

"I confronted Issa. . .. . I got in his face and threatened to kill him, and magically my car reappeared the next day, abandoned on the turnpike," the retired soldier said in a phone interview from his home in Pennsylvania.

Issa was not prosecuted and "he left the unit very shortly after that," the former soldier said.

Tense confrontation&lt;

Other soldiers from the 10-man 145th said they couldn't recall Issa, who was an 18-year-old soldier in 1971.

But Bergey said he remembered Issa clearly because of their tense confrontation over his yellow 1970 Dodge, which he said disappeared from a locked lot in the unit's compound shortly before Christmas 1971.

Bergey said that while he and other members of the 145th were tabbed to travel with the president or other dignitaries to perform bomb sweeps, it was highly unlikely that Issa ever drew that duty.

"When you go out on presidential protection detail, they just don't take someone who's been there only two or three months," he said. "I don't think that dude ever went out on those presidential protection details . . . As far as EOD (bomb disposal) was concerned, he was low man on the totem pole."

"Short-term kind of deal'&lt;

But Neugebauer said that although Issa may have been confused about which baseball game he had attended, the candidate had indeed served temporarily with a bomb detachment that had protected the president.

"It was a very short-term kind of deal," he said.

He acknowledged that although Issa's military career

"spanned nine years," he was only on active duty for slightly more than five years.

Nevertheless, he said, Issa had told the truth about his military record, and declared that other newspapers had inquired about the matter and had found there was

"nothing there."

Neugebauer also said he found it inappropriate and shocking that The Examiner would consider publishing a story questioning aspects of Issa's military record only four days before Tuesday's the June 2 primary.

Details about Issa's military service are important because he repeatedly cites his Army background as what sets him apart from other Senate candidates. Before going into business, Issa "devoted his life to serving in the Army," his biography says.

A political novice, he is locked in a tight Republican primary battle with state Treasurer Matt Fong. The winner will square off against Barbara Boxer, the incumbent Democrat, whom Issa has denounced as someone who "hates the military."

Another auto allegation&lt;

Bergey's allegations also are noteworthy because they mark one of two occasions when the youthful Issa was accused of auto theft. The Los Angeles Times reported last week that in 1972, shortly after he had been discharged from the Army, Issa and his brother were arrested on suspicion of stealing a Maserati sports car from a Cleveland dealership. The charges were dropped, and Issa said he wrongly was arrested because his brother had been in trouble with the police.

Issa grew up in Cleveland. In November 1970, at age 17, he enlisted in the Army for a three-year tour of duty. After bomb-disposal school, he was detailed to Manor, Pa., where the 145th was stationed.

According to soldiers who served there, the unit performed bomb sweeps for the Army and for Pittsburgh's police department, which did not have its own bomb detail at the time.

Men from the unit said they sometimes were detailed to travel with the Secret Service and sweep for bombs at places to be visited by the president or other dignitaries.

Unsatisfactory conduct&lt;

Issa's military records show that he arrived at the 145th on June 18, 1971, and stayed until Sept. 13. On that day, he received unsatisfactory conduct and efficiency ratings and was transferred to a supply depot in another Pittsburgh suburb.

There, he worked as a duty soldier. Former GIs said that means he had been stripped of his duties as a bomb specialist, and was used for whatever needed to be done.

Two months later, Issa received excellent performance ratings and was transferred back to the bomb unit, regaining his job as a bomb specialist.

In February 1972, nearly two years before his enlistment was to expire, he left the Army. Neugebauer, the deputy campaign manager, said Issa obtained a hardship discharge because his father was gravely ill.

Issa often mentions his time in the 145th, saying in one biographical press release that he was "detailed to the Army security team that travelled with President Richard Nixon."

In newspaper interviews, he sometimes has elaborated. A 1990 story in the San Diego Union said of Issa: "He was on a bomb disposal unit for President Nixon and got to see the 1971 World Series because Nixon wanted to go and the stadiums had to be secured."

Nixon loved baseball. But according to records kept by the Nixon Presidential Library, he was at the White House in Washington during the 1971 Series, which pitted the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Baltimore Orioles.

Nixon watched on TV&lt;

Nixon did watch the first and sixth games on television, said archivist Susan Naulty, quoting the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, and he telephoned managers of both teams after the Pirates won the seventh and deciding game Oct. 17.

Former soldiers said it was possible that the 145th had been deployed to sweep ballparks for the Series if a presidential visit was planned and then scrapped at the last minute.

But no one remembered that happening, and they said it was impossible that Issa would have been involved if, as his service record indicates, he had been reassigned to the supply depot during the games.

Neugebauer said Issa may have been mistaken about which games he viewed.

"It may have been a playoff game, it may have been another game," he said. "If you're a young kid from Cleveland, anything that has to do with the White House is exciting."

According to Sgt. Bergey, the alleged auto theft occurred shortly before Christmas in 1971.

Bergey said he had been sent on short notice to eastern Pennsylvania to dispose of ammunition. When he returned the next day, he said, the car was missing.

Bergey said only a few soldiers knew of his overnight assignment. He said he concluded that Issa had stolen the car, driven it 150 miles to Cleveland and then returned to the barracks.

At the time a 15-year veteran who had served in Vietnam, Bergey said he confronted the teenage soldier.

"I told him I was going to kill him if I didn't get my car back," Bergey said. He said Issa denied stealing the car, but soon after, the car was found abandoned less than a mile away.

Reported to police&lt;

Bergey said he reported the theft to the Pennsylvania state police and to the lieutenant who commanded the unit, but no charges were filed.

He said he discussed the car with Issa's mother when she visited a few weeks after the car was found.

He said Issa's mother "basically admitted that my car had been in Cleveland," saying that Issa had claimed to have purchased the vehicle.

Bergey said he was unaware of Issa's political career and wasn't particularly interested in it, saying, "I can't believe this kid is running for anything." &lt;